Northwestern tops scrappy UMKC 77-62

Beware. Another sign of the Northwestern basketball apocalypse occurred Monday night.

First came a fistful of Associated Press Top 25 votes. In this week's poll the Wildcats received 7 points to rank 40th nationally.

Then came spots among the nation's top 40 teams in the Ratings Percentage Index formula and the Sagarin computer rankings.

NU started this week at No. 11 in the RPI (one spot behind Connecticut) and No. 36 according to Sagarin (one spot ahead of Wisconsin).

Then, in the Wildcats' 77-62 nonconference win over scrappy UMKC on Monday night at Welsh-Ryan Arena, came the event that rounded out the trilogy:

Blocked shots.

With Kevin Coble and Ivan Peljusic each swatting away three attempts by the smaller Kangaroos - a Summit League team whose lineup ranged from 5-feet-11 to 6-6 - NU piled up 10 blocks to fall 1 shy of the school record.

"It was definitely like the Bizarro World," said Coble, who had never enjoyed a 3-block game in an NU uniform. "We felt like we had a good presence out there. I think that was a big key to the game was those blocked shots.

"That happened to us a lot of times (in years past). We'd get to the basket, run our stuff, and we'd have a layup and all of a sudden someone would come over and take that away - and there was really nothing you could do about that. So to do that to a team was nice for us."

Though Northwestern (7-1) continued its best start since 2001-02, it looked like a typically ragged first-game-after-finals affair.

Coble (22 points, 8 rebounds) had to drill 4 consecutive 3-pointers during the final eight minutes - part of a stretch in which he hit 6 shots in a row and scored 16 of NU's 18 points - to keep the Kangaroos (4-8) at arm's length.

UMKC, which ran a bunch of Michigan's offense since coach Matt Brown worked as John Beilein's assistant for more than a decade, kept spreading the floor and mixing 3-pointers with shots in the paint.

Had a few of NU's 10 blocked shots gone in the hoop, this prep for Saturday's big game at undefeated Stanford would have turned into a nail-biter.

As it was, point guard Juice Thompson (season-high 17 points, 6 assists) had to play 38 minutes, while Coble and senior guard Craig Moore played 37 apiece.

Freshman John Shurna added a career-high 20 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks in his 28 minutes.